Thursday News Roundup

Christmas is a time of year filled with a lot of bullshit nobody really wants or cares about, a prime example of which is the holiday album. The holiday album can come in many shapes and sizes, from the obscure indie holiday releases that, while finely crafted and unique, few will ever hear; to the occasional indie band that will release a holiday compilation or, more frequently, a song; to the chart-toppers’ obligatory holiday releases. Artists like Justin Bieber could shit in a vinyl press and sell enough copies to make it worth it, and if you’ve heard Bieber’s take on “Little Drummer Boy” (feat. Busta Rhymes), you know what I mean. Standing above them all, however, is one man, and his name is Michael Bublé. The modern-day Bing Crosby’s chart-topping Christmas album has been flying off the shelves of Wal-Mart and Starbucks faster than egg nog lattes, and SNL recently did a skit imagining what it would be like if Bublé teamed up with other music icons to record an album of holiday duets. Hilarity ensued, with cameos by Thom Yorke, Sting, Kanye West, M.I.A., and others. Check it out here:

The Oscars are nearly upon us, and though it might not be a strong year for ‘Best Picture,’ the ‘Original Song’ category is chock full of familiar names. Among those shortlisted are The National, Jónsi, She & Him, Bret from Flight of the Conchords, and Chris Cornell. For the complete list of potential nominees, click here.

Officers in Washington DC recently apprehended 161 firearms, $7 million in drugs, and made 70 arrests after a year-long sting in which they pretended to set up a recording studio, posed as rappers, and “put out the word that they were looking for drug deals and weapons to sell.” A similar effort in Brooklyn yielded 324 pair of black-rimmed glasses, 101 iPhones, and 75 tons of nylon.